(no subject)

[xiphias]

One of the weird things about being signed up for more than one agency for bartending is that:
1. I'm a damn good bartender; therefore the agencies tend to call me first
2. Event planners go through several agencies to get enough bartenders
3. I'm signed up with some of the names that people go to first --

Therefore, I'm sometimes offered the exact same shift from two agencies.

I really ought to actually go back and figure out what hourly rate each place pays so I can know who to take the event from. . .

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew how to bartend. It would be a pleasant 2nd job, and I could sure use the extra money.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Can I ask, does it pay enough that it would be worth taking a bartending class?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It might. The main thing that's useful is to get your TIPS (or BarCode) certification. Those are training programs in how to tell if people are drunk, and how to not serve people without pissing them off.

Other than that, I can probably teach you how to tend bar in an afternoon. It's really not hard. The only tricky thing is the three-count pour. And that's not terribly tricky.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I used to cocktail waitress back in the day. I often thought I'd rather be bartending. Even now, every holiday season I wish I could bartend for the extra cash.

Do the TIPS/BarCode classes also teach you how to make drinks? As it is, I couldn't make a martini to save my life, but I could certainly learn all those hip drinks.

Where would one look for the TIPS/BarCode classes?

[cheshyre]

[As I understand it secondhand,] TIPS classes are purely about legal liability issues, with no instruction in mixing drinks. More info @ http://www.gettips.com/ and they also have online training.

As far as learning how to make drinks and other bartending duties...
...have you read Advice for Bartenders, which xiphias posted in June?

Among my memories from the bartending class he took:

• Lots of flash cards/drilling on drink names&recipes -- not the really exotic ones, but screwdriver, greyhound, cape-codder... Older editions of the Harvard Bartending Course book were very good for this, as they grouped drinks by common ingredients
• A lot of practice perfecting the three-count pour. Water-filled liquor bottle into a measuring cup. Or into proper drink glasses (shotglass, highball) and from there into the measuring cup.
• Practicing other skills -- how to shake, how to strain, how to stir -- I think he did many of those over the sink in case of spills...

Dunno if any of that helps;

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Thanks much! I'll check those links!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

They do not teach you to make drinks, although there are often bartending classes which also include TIPS training.

http://www.gettips.com/ ought to have lists of where training classes are.

And, like I said, the "making drinks" part is the easist part of tending bar, and I can teach it to you in a few hours.